We all have someone who truly loves us and we reciprocate the same feeling for him. If that someone happens to be an animal or a pet this bonding becomes all the more special. This feeling is too intimate and beautiful to be given away easily. These animals become an integral part of our lives and we dread a moment without them. Remember to love a animal doesn't necessary mean adopting them, a simple gesture of giving food to a street dog or feeding milk to cat, shows your love for other beings.

Share Your Love For Animals With The World - this is the theme of this blog and all animal lovers are requested to share their feeling with us and others. You can send a picture of your pet/loved animal with an article just fill the form below . Your entries along with your feeling will be shared and appreciated by the world.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Nudibranch
The bottom-dwelling, jelly-bodied nudibranch (NEW-dih-bronk) might seem an unlikely canvas for Mother Nature to express her wildest indulgences of color and form. But these shell-less mollusks, part of the sea slug family, bear some of the most fascinating shapes, sumptuous hues, and intricate patterns of any animal on Earth.

There are more than 3,000 known species of nudibranch, and new ones are being identified almost daily. They are found throughout the world's oceans, but are most abundant in shallow, tropical waters. Their scientific name, Nudibranchia, means naked gills, and describes the feathery gills and horns that most wear on their backs.

Generally oblong in shape, nudibranchs can be thick or flattened, long or short, ornately colored or drab to match their surroundings. They can grow as small as 0.25 inches (6 millimeters) or as large as 12 inches (31 centimeters) long.

They are carnivores that slowly ply their range grazing on algae, sponges, anemones, corals, barnacles, and even other nudibranchs. To identify prey, they have two highly sensitive tentacles, called rhinophores, located on top of their heads. Nudibranchs derive their coloring from the food they eat, which helps in camouflage, and some even retain the foul-tasting poisons of their prey and secrete them as a defense against predators.

Nudibranchs are simultaneous hermaphrodites, and can mate with any other mature member of their species. Their lifespan varies widely, with some living less than a month, and others living up to one year.

Nudibranchs live at virtually all depths of salt water, but reach their greatest size and variation in warm, shallow waters.

The body forms of nudibranchs vary enormously, but because they are opisthobranchs, unlike most other gastropods they are bilaterally symmetrical because they have undergone secondary detorsion. Some species have venomous appendages on their sides. These are used to deter predators. Many also have a simple gut and a mouth with a radula.

They lack a mantle cavity.
Solar powered Pteraeolidia ianthina have adapted cerata to contain zooxanthellae which continue to photosynthesize and provide energy to the nudibranch.

Their eyes are simple and able to discern little more than light and dark.[3] The eyes are set into the body, are about a quarter of a millimeter in diameter, and consist of a lens and five photoreceptors.[4]

They vary in adult size from 20 to 600 millimetres (0.79 to 24 in).

The adult form is without a shell or operculum (a bony or horny plate covering the opening of the shell, when the body is withdrawn).

The name nudibranch is appropriate, since the dorids (infraclass Anthobranchia) breathe through a "naked gill shaped" like branchial plumes of bushy extremities on their back, near their tail rather than using gills.[5] By contrast, on the back of the aeolids in the clade Cladobranchia there are brightly colored sets of protruding organs called cerata.

America's Funniest Home Videos (often simply abbreviated to AFHV, or its on-air abbreviation AFV) is an American reality television program on ABC in which viewers are able to send in humorous homemade videotapes. The most common videos usually feature slapstick physical comedy arising from accidents and mishaps. Other popular videos include humorous situations involving pets or children, while some are staged practical jokes and various forms of act. The show is based on the Japanese show Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan (aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System)